Thursday, November 12, 2009

Baby Bear is out of surgery. It went well and he will have full leg casts on for awhile. Please continue to pray for him to be able to manage his pain OK and also they are concerned because of his "big bubba thighs" that his casts might slip off. He did have a difficult time in the past with allergic reactions to the casting material so we appreciate your thoughts and prayers for Bear.

Emmanuella is still in surgery. Her bypass surgery will take another three hours. So far she is doing well- we will update once we hear more. It is a blessing that her Aunt is able to be here with her and her host Mom Darla is doing a fantastic job. Keep praying!

Friday, October 30, 2009

Emmanuella is 5 years old and from Haiti. She arrived in the Pacific Northwest last night with her auntie. They are staying with a wonderful host family. Emmanuella is here for heart surgery. They were exhausted when they arrived and sweet Emmanuella doesn't have much energy because of her heart condition. The host Mom just called to update me and let me know that they are going for immunizations for Emmanuella right now. Please keep them all in your prayers as everyone is tired from so many "changes" and "new things". They are blessed with someone to translate over the phone as the host family doesn't know much creole. The Aunt has been cooking a lot and got to experience a US grocery store today for the very first time.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

This beautiful little girl is Mercy. Mercy is four years old and from Uganda. Mercy needs our help desperately. Mercy has a rare seizure disorder that scared people in her country. She was found abandoned and wandering the streets. The people believed that Mercy might be possessed. Wonderful loving people took her in and have been caring for her but her seizures are getting worse. They were able to get a CT scan for her but there are no neurosurgeons in Uganda. The Medical Advocacy Team is working hard to get her the medical care she needs quickly.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Another organization that we work with is in need of a host family ASAP near Detroit for a one year old baby girl who is going to have surgery for a VP shunt- please email me (Sarah) for more information at: sisters3designs@aol.com

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The MAT has recently been presented with two baby boy in Haiti that are in desperate need of help. Baby Caleb and Baby Loubens were both born in the same area of Haiti and were born with the same condition. They were both brought to COTP Orphanage and the orphanage is doing everything they can to help them. These boys need help they can't get in Haiti. Caleb and Loubens are living on borrowed time - they need surgery now.

We need to raise the money for these children's medical tests, paperwork, visas, and travel.

If you are interested in donating to this cause please visit the COTP Donation page. Please be sure to note that your donation is for Caleb and Loubens. You can also donate to MAT and we will forward the funds to the appropriate people. Just be sure to note that it is for Caleb and Loubens.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

5 year old Emmanuella from Haiti will be coming to the US soon for heart surgery. A big thank you to the doctor and hospital in OR who have commited to her care! This is their second time donating surgery to a precious, Haitian child....thank you!!!

We still have several Haitian children with heart conditions that need surgery. Including, two babies with Downs Syndrome. It is VERY hard to find doctors and hospitals willing to provide pro-bono medical care to these precious little ones. If you know any surgeons or hospitals willing to help, please let us know. medicaladvocacyteam@live.com

As I'm sure everyone reading this knows - the Medical Advocacy Team LOVES Real Hope for Haiti. RHFH is an amazing organization working in Haiti. They run a medical clinic, rescue center for malnourished children, school sponsorships, food distribution, clean water, community development, etc. We love the family that runs RHFH and love supporting them in any way we can. Many of our referrals come from their medical clinic and it has always been such a joy and privilege to work with them. You can read their blogs HERE and HERE.

We will probably have a couple of upcoming posts about how you can help a child from RHFH. Right now, I wanted to make sure everyone was aware of the Medika Mamba program. RHFH has started using this for their severly malnourished children, and it is a miracle product! Medika Mamba means "medical peanut butter" in Kreyol. It is a highly fortified peanut butter product, made in Haiti. And it is saving lives. You won't believe the difference it can make in a child in a few short weeks. Go HERE and HERE to see the proof in pictures.

Our friend and missionary, Tara Livesay is running a marathon to raise money for the starving children of Haiti. The funds will go to buy Medika Mamba for these precious children. They are raising $26,000 and are 87% of the way there! Please, if you get a chance, consider donating to this wonderful cause. You can donate on the upper left hand corner of the Livesay blog. This stuff is truly saving lives.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

We are in need of a temporary host family in the Portland area for a 5 year old little girl coming to the US for cardiac surgery. She will probably be arriving with her mother. If you are interested in this situation please email us at medicaladvocacyteam@live.com and we will send you a host family application.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Friday, June 26, 2009

Some small updates:

We know of an organization that is currently looking for a host family in the Houston, TX area. If you have a lead on a host family in that area please contact us and we will put you in touch with the proper people. medicaladvocacyteam@live.com

We still have cleft bottles. If you are going to Haiti (or another developing country) soon and would be willing to carry over some bottles, please let me know.

We are currently looking for an orthopaedic surgeon willing to consider the case of a young Haitian girl with a diagnosis of distal arthrogryposis, pterygium syndrome, bilateral club feet.

Please pray for this sweet baby boy. He is currently in a Haitian hospital. Our friends at RHFH are working to determine if there is a doctor in Haiti who can treat him. He needs our prayers.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the lack of updates on the MAT blog. Things have been very slow for the MAT right now. It seems that many hospitals and doctors are reducing or discontinuing their charity care programs because of the economy. This makes it even harder for us find medical care for our waiting children.

We now have six Haitian children in need of cardiac surgery. There is a doctor interested in helping one of the children but we don't have a commitment yet. If you know of any cardiothoracic surgeons that might be interested in helping one of these children - please let us know.

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Very soon, we will be looking for some more volunteers. We are in need of volunteers that will be willing to contact hospitals and doctors in their area trying to secure charity medical care for children. We will write more about this soon, but in the mean time - if you are interested in possibly volunteering a little of your time with us, please contact us and let us know. medicaladvocacyteam@live.com

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We still have cleft bottles to be distributed. If you are traveling to Haiti (or any other developing country that can use them) and will be visiting a hospital, clinic or orphanage that sees cleft affected children please let us know and we can ship you some bottles to hand carry over. We have currently sent cleft bottles to Haiti, Thailand and India.

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If you haven't already seen it, you can go HERE to see pictures of the kids we have helped so far. We hope we can add many more pictures to this page in the years to come!

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Some kid updates:

Saintana came to the RHFH clinic for a check-up. She has re-adjusted to her family and is doing well. Saintana had surgery in the United States early this year and returned home to Haiti in March. What a cutie!

Schnider came to for a check up this month as well. He is growing up so big and doing very well at home with his family.

Baby Bear (Berlange) is doing well in WA with Sarah and her family. He is getting sooooo chubby and is so adorable. You can follow his journey and health updates on Sarah's blog HERE.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Eloise's medical care is complete and she will be headed back to Haiti on Friday. She has recovered well and has been such a blessing to her host family. Some exciting news - since Eloise is an orphan, her host family is going to try to adopt her! They have a special meeting while they are in Haiti and I pray that Haiti will give them permission to pursue her adoption. It will be great if she can go back to the family she has already bonded to and grown to love.

Please continue to pray for her as she re-adjusts to her family. And please pray for her host family, the Ivey's here in the States. They love and miss her so much. Hosting a child on a medical visa has many wonderful rewards, but it is so hard to say goodbye to a child you have loved and cared for.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Monday, March 2, 2009

Saintana is on her way home! She and her host momma are on their way to Haiti so that this sweet girl can be reunited with her family. Hopefully we'll have pictures of the reunion soon.

Little Fedna will be headed home soon. She had spina bifida surgery in TX. She is doing great and the doctors have give the all clear for her to return to Haiti.

Eloise is out of the hospital and back home with her host family. Thank you for all your prayers during those scary couple of days when she was so sick.

We currently have several children we are looking for medical care for. I will work on getting their pictures and information up on the sidebar. We are desperately in need of some pediatric cardiothroacic surgeons that would be willing to consider donating their time to help some children in Haiti. If you know of anyone that might be interested in helping, please let us know. medicaladvocacyteam@live.com

Saturday, February 21, 2009

We wanted to give a little update on Bear. He is out of the hospital and home.

He is having a hard time with his formula (as he has for awhile now). Bear will see the nutritionist this week to determine if perhaps he needs a non-soy, non-milk protein, amino acid formula- or if if there is something else that we can do for him. He definitely has "colic", poor guy. Bear will also have a neurosurgery followup and visit the developmental doctor this week.

Bear is gaining weight really well. That has been the biggest blessing with all the dietary issues. Bear will have appointments with the urologist and then the orthopedic surgeon in the upcoming weeks. He is looking at many months of additional medical care but is WELL on his way to recovery. We can hardly believe he is 12 weeks old already!

Thanks so much to all our friends in Texas, especially Dr. A., her staff, and the medical team in Austin. You were all wonderful and we wouldn't have been able to help Bear without all your love and support! We will do our best to give monthly updates on Bear and his progress.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Eliose is critical yet stable. This morning she was unstable, apparently her heart is having a hard time adjusting. she is on a ventilator,and sedated so that she cannot move. they say the next 24 hrs will tell the story, her fever has come down to 101 from 104.Please continue to pray for her.

Please be praying for Eloise. She had cardiac surgery yesterday and we got word this morning that she is having some complication. Please pray she recovers quickly and without further complication. We'll keep everyone updated.

Friday, January 30, 2009

They weren't in the United States long, but they touched a lot of hearts while they were here. We are so thrilled to be able to return two beautiful healthy girls to their families.

An enormous thank you to their host family here in the United States, and the doctor and hospital that donated their care. You have changed the lives of these precious girls and we can't thank you enough!!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Our family has had the great honor of hosting Britnie and Fedlene while they have been here in the US receiving their medical care. They arrived the end of November, right before Thanksgiving, and will be heading back to Haiti next week. They received their surgery after being here only two weeks, and the last of the stitches came out last week, just in time to go home!

Our journey with the girls began when I saw their photos on the MAT blog, and saw that the doctor that had volunteered his care was in our state... I thought the chances were slim that the doctor was actually close to us, but I inquired about hosting the girls, and sure enough, their doctor was only 15 minutes away from us. It seemed like a sign from God that we were supposed to be the ones to care for them while they were here. Unfortunately at that time, we were trying to finish up the adoption of our Haitian son, and didn't feel comfortable working on 3 visas (one for our son, and the medical ones for the girls) at the same time, so we had to pass on hosting them, and my heart was so heavy.

At that time, another family who was adopting from Haiti signed up to host the girls, and they also live near us so I was excited to be able to at least visit the girls while they were here in the US.... well, things such as this rarely go as planned.... time moved on, and the girls still were not ready to come to the US (paperwork wise). In the mean time another family signed up to host the girls, because the first family would be bringing their boys home from Haiti very soon.

Long story shorter... time once again went on, and that family had other things come up that would make them unable to host. We were given the opportunity to get our paperwork together so that we could be the host family.

We were so incredibly excited. We picked up two brave, beautiful little girls from the airport, and within the week started going to appointments to prep them for their surgery. The doctor who provided his care, and his office staff who did all of the scheduling were so sweet, and had everything under control. We just needed to show up when we were told.

The surgeries went off without a hitch, and we were in the hospital about 4 days.... the rest of our time together has been recovering, taking antibiotics to avoid infections, and getting to know these darling little girls. They and their parents have definitely been a living testament to us about what REAL faith, and trust are. Their parents had to trust complete strangers (us!), they had to trust a doctor who they had never met or spoken to, they had to trust that it would be safe to put their daughters on an airplane, and trust that everything would be ok.

The parents were able to receive updates via Real Hope for Haiti, and they were also able to print off pictures to give to the parents as well. While I am sure that has helped ease a little of the worry, I can only imagine how much they miss their girls..... In only 6 days they will be reunited. Our family will be so sad to say goodbye, but we only have to think about how joyful the reunion with their families will be.

We ask that you pray for the girls and their families as they get reacquainted with each other. That their transition from the cold North Carolina winter weather, back to the heat of Haiti won't be too rough on their little bodies, and pray that God will continue to watch over them and their families. We will be praying for safety as they travel as well.

Our hosting experience has been awesome. Since we had just brought our son home from Haiti in July, all of the "parenting" Creole was fresh in our minds.... we have been able to communicate with the girls from the beginning. There have been many times when the girls were telling a story and I could only pick up on bits and pieces of what was being said, but as long as I was being attentive, and smiling and nodding- they didn't seem to care if I really understood or not. The girls have fit right in with our 6 children, and I have taken comfort in knowing that these well rounded little girls come from and will be returning to their loving families. They are smart, funny, silly, cuddly, playful, brave, beautiful little girls, who I know are going to grow up to do big things.

We want to thank the MAT Team here in the US and those other hard workers (Lori from RHFH- and her family) who did all of the initial paperwork and running around. What they do is not considered glamorous on many accounts, but I think it is some of the most precious, "noteworthy" work. I feel like we had the easy job of hosting and caring for the girls, and they did all of the hard stuff!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Sweet little Saintana continues to do very well. Her first surgery was a success and she has recovered well under the loving care of her host family. Saintana saw her surgeon Monday and has gained 2 lbs since arriving! She's doing great and her next surgery is scheduled for February 6. The surgeon will close her colostomy and hopefully all her digestive tract will work perfectly.

Thank you for your continued love and prayer for this darling girl. You can follow her host families blog HERE.

Please pray that the brain CSF is NEG and he can have shunt surgery soon. Otherwise we may be talking several extra weeks in the hospital. We will continue to keep everyone updated. Thank you for loving and praying for this sweet boy!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Bear had his first surgery yesterday. They repaired his myelomeningocele (closed his back) and also tapped his ventricles to take a sample of the CSF fluid in his brain. This was sent off for culture to see if its going to grow anything. We are heavily praying that it doesn't grow anything. Bear has a tummy infection and a urine infection already so we are just hoping that the antibiotics do their job and he can be well on his way to healing!As long as his recovery goes well over the next 48 hours- he will be having surgery again on Thursday for a VP shunt for his hydrocephalus and also repair of the hernia in his groin. For the next three days he is on his tummy and as of right now we are in the ICU.Surgery yesterday went very well but because of having to get several blood transfusions- we are in the ICU where he can be monitored more closely.Thank you all for your continued prayers for Baby Bear. He is a very sweet baby and is eating so well- despite being on his belly- it is truly amazing.We will try to update the blog later today with pictures of his back.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Please pray for all of our hearts to remain steadfast and strong.Please pray for the passport people to get it done TOMORROW.Please pray for us to all forge ahead with plans and not let anything stand in our way.Please pray for Bears personal round the clock caretaker (shown above).

And pray for the people at RHFH- they are more busy this week than their normal BUSY life. They are swamped truthfully. They had hoped like the rest of us that Bear was in TX- two

weeks ago- and seeing him wait and suffer has to be a great burden to bear.

This is it. This is just in the nick of time.It HAS to happen tomorrow.(Then he will get his Visa on Thursday and travel on Friday.)

Please pray and please pass this on to everyone you know to have them pray.

Bear continues to eat well, gain weight, and is doing OK.His bump is still changing and thinning in some parts.He has been fever free.His head circumference is getting larger...He is a strong baby and fighting so hard.

Psalm 107:1-4 (The Message)1-3

Oh, thank God—he’s so good!His love never runs out.All of you set free by God, tell the world!Tell how he freed you from oppression,Then rounded you up from all over the place,from the four winds, from the seven seas.

4-9 Some of you wandered for years in the desert,looking but not finding a good place to live,Half-starved and parched with thirst,staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion.Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God.He got you out in the nick of time;He put your feet on a wonderful roadthat took you straight to a good place to live.So thank God for his marvelous love,for his miracle mercy to the children he loves.He poured great draughts of water down parched throats;the starved and hungry got plenty to eat.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Baby Bear's passport is in the works. The application was able to be made yesterday and it is being processed. The best case scenario is that they will be able to have the

completed passport tomorrow- but there is always a chance it can take longer.

Bear is hanging in there and doing OK. Thank you for your continued prayers.

Sweet Fedna had a full day of traveling yesterday. Thanks so much to Jessica and Jamie (escort and host mom) for helping to bring Fedna to her final destination- TEXAS. And thank all of you for helping with the cost of her plane ticket. What a tremendous blessing it was to be able to have Fedna travel so quickly! Today she is going to see the wonderful Doctor and also to receive some pre-operative testing. On Monday she will have her surgery. What a blessing!

Adorable Saintana was released from the hospital yesterday and is now back at home with her host family. She will need another surgery in February and then recovery time and if all goes well- she will be headed home shortly after that! You can read more about her journey here: